A friend gave me one of Adafruit’s circuit playgrounds (developer edition) to use, and I wanted to see would it make a good robot controller. The circuit playground is packed full of features like sensors, neo-pixels and even an accelerometer.
I wanted to add a L9110 motor controller and create a small bot I could use to show some of the expansion possibilities. The circuit playground uses the standard Arduino IDE so its has a huge amount of libraries and examples on the web to use.
I also wanted to make something robust that wouldn’t have a lot of wires exposed, so beginners or children could use my bot and learn to program.
Adding bluetooth was also a goal which I talk about later in this article.
Circuit Playground Express – Developer Edition: Circuit Playground Express is the next step towards a perfect introduction to electronics and programming. We’ve taken the original Circuit Playground Classic and made it even better! Not only did we pack even more sensors in, we also made it even easier to program. You can now start your journey with Microsoft MakeCode block-based or Javascript programming. Then, you can use the same board to try CircuitPython, with the Python interpreter running right on the Express. As you progress, you can advance to using Arduino IDE, which has full support of all the hardware down to the low level, so you can make powerful projects. (read more)
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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